Dispatcher Shortage

[rick521]

Karen Graber
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
Sunday, January 15, 2006

Reno County is facing a shortage of dispatchers.

9-1-1 Director Mary Messamore says the county needs 18 fulltime dispatchers but only has seven. They handle nearly 100 emergency calls everyday. Some even worked more than a thousand hours of overtime.

WIBW
Reno County is facing a shortage of emergency dispatch workers.
911 Director Mary Messamore says the county needs 18 full-time
dispatchers, but has only seven, and some of them worked more than 1,000 hours of overtime last year. The dispatchers handle every law enforcement, fire and ambulance department in the county.
Dispatchers generally work 12-hour days in a closed-off basement
room. Last year they handled an average of nearly 150 emergency calls a day from 911 lines, and thousands more calls from law enforcement, fire departments and emergency medical services.
Starting pay ranges from about $13 an hour to more than $17 an hour. Messamore says it takes a special kind of person to do the job.

Any other agencies in KS having problems finding dispatchers?

 

[BoxAlarm187]

It seems to be a nationwide epodemic. The county in which I am a career FF is 30 dispatchers short, so they're selecting FF's and LEO's that had previous dispatch experience to work part-time in the 911 center for $23/hour.

 

[wa8pyr]

Karen Graber
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
Sunday, January 15, 2006

Reno County is facing a shortage of dispatchers.
{snip}
Any other agencies in KS having problems finding dispatchers?

It's a problem in many places. It's a very high-stress job, but the pay is relatively low in comparison. It's hard to get and retain good people when they don't get decent pay for the job and get burned out quickly due to the stress of the job.

I used to be a dispatcher, but lost that job after 20 years when it was outsourced to another agency. Kind of a mixed blessing, I guess...

Tom WA8PYR

 

[rick521]

Lead Story on Channel 12

The shortage of dispatchers was the lead story on KWCH tonight.